Tag: ALAN Award

Press Release: Lee & Low wins the ALAN Award 2024

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN) is pleased to announce Lee & Low Books as the recipient of the 2024 ALAN Award. The award honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Join us at the ALAN Breakfast to celebrate Lee & Low’s remarkable accomplishments.

Lee & Low Books is the largest independent multicultural children’s book publisher in the United States. The family-run and certified 100% Minority Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) produces award-winning, high-quality books that are about everyone, for everyone — from picture books to middle grade and young adult novels as well as a wide selection of bilingual and Spanish language titles. Lee & Low’s commitment to greater representation in the publishing industry is reflected in the often-cited Diversity Baseline Survey and in the writing contests for unpublished writers of color or Indigenous/Native writers: New Voices Award and New Visions Award.

Over the decades since they were founded, Lee & Low Books has pushed for industry change in remarkable ways and established inventive and sustainable initiatives to support and nurture many authors and illustrators, increasing diversity in the literature available to librarians, educators, and most importantly, young readers.

Press Release: ALAN Award 2023

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN) is pleased to announce A.S. King as the recipient of the 2023 ALAN Award. The award is given to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Join us at the ALAN Breakfast to celebrate A.S. King’s achievements.

A.S. King has been called “One of the best Y.A. writers working today” by the New York Times Book Review. King is the author of numerous highly-acclaimed novels including 2021’s Switch, called a “surrealist masterpiece” by Kirkus Reviews, the 2020 Michael L. Printz Award winner and LA Times Book Prize finalist Dig, the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Ask the Passengers, and the 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Please Ignore Vera Dietz, among other novels and short stories in various collections. She also writes highly acclaimed Middle Grade fiction as Amy Sarig King—titles include Me and Marvin Gardens, The Year We Fell From Space, and 2022’s Attack of the Black Rectangles—as well as poetry and short stories. In 2022, she received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature, helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.

She is a faculty member of the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and spends many months of the year traveling the world speaking to high school and university students, educators, and humans who care about young people. King is a fierce advocate for youth agency and mental health supports, and she is an inspiration for both teens and adults around the world.

King will provide remarks at the upcoming ALAN Breakfast to be held on November 18 during the NCTE Annual Convention. The 2023 ALAN Award Committee members are Chair Shalonda Foster, Robert Bittner, naitnaphit limlamai, and Lisa Morris-Wilkey.

Press Release: ALAN Award 2022

Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop is Professor Emerita of Education at The Ohio State University, where she has taught courses on children’s literature.  Dr. Bishop is often referred to as the mother of multicultural literature and is the author of several books including Shadow and Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children’s Fiction (1982), Presenting Walter Dean Myers (1990), Kaleidoscope: A Multicultural Booklist for Grades K-8 (1994),  Wonders: The Best Children’s Poems of Effie Lee Newsome (1999), and Free within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children’s Literature (2007). Shadow and Substance provided a framework for analyzing cultural authenticity in children’s books, which remains today a standard in the field.  Dr. Bishop’s essay, “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors (1990)” focused on the need for black children to see themselves in the books that they read. The metaphor continues to be widely referenced by educators, librarians, academics, textbooks, conference presentations and academic journals; it’s also the subject of TEDx talks, podcasts, and blogs.  Dr. Bishop’s work was used to inspire the We Need Diverse Books movement, an organization devoted to promoting, celebrating and supporting diverse representations in publishing and youth literature.    

Dr. Bishop received the distinguished 2017 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Library Association (ALA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Outstanding Educator in English Language Arts Award, and the International Literacy Association’s (ILA) Arbuthnot Award. She was the chair of the Coretta Scott King Award Jury and has been on the selection committee for both the Newbery and Caldecott Awards. Also, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) , a division of ALA, selected Dr. Bishop to give the 2021 Lecture. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s work has been pivotal in the change in publishing trends, public and school library collections, teaching practices at all levels, and the lives of children and adolescents who have had access to books with increased diversity. 

Dr. Christina Dorr will provide remarks on behalf of Dr. Bishop at the upcoming ALAN breakfast to be held on November 19 during The 2022 NCTE Conference in Anaheim, CA.  ALAN Award Committee members are Chair Lisa Morris-Wilkey, Dr. Rob Bittner, Jewel Davis, Shalonda Foster, and Morgan Jackson.

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